The function of this core is to provide technical and computational support to all the projects in this program proposal. This support includes help in the specification, purchase, implementation, and maintenance of computer equipment and laboratory instrumentation. The Medical University has no engineering department. This core is our remedy to that void. We need a full time engineer/programmer to help with system software and hardware design. He will also be responsible for maintenance and the building of specific hardware/software items that become necessary for any of the five projects. This support will free the PI (Schmiedt) from many of the engineering tasks for which he is now, by default, responsible. Another shared resource provided by this core is that of a centralized acoustic calibration facility. It is planned to make this instrumentation portable so it can be used conveniently by any of Projects 1, 2, or 3. A final support function of this core that is extremely important to the success of this program proposal is the overall management of the primary data obtained from all the individual projects. The IBM PC AT computers as well as existing computers will be used to store and access this data base. Dr. C. Lam, with the aid of the PI and the engineer, will be in charge of the actual data base design and its implementation. Moreover, we will utilize the resources of the Department of Biometry as needed for further statistical support. The Department is within the Medical University and consists of 13 full-time faculty members who are well-versed in problems of experimental design, system theory, statistical analysis, and database management. In the second year of the program, a part-time technician will be hired to help input the data from the different projects into the central data base. This technician will be shared on a 50% basis with Project 3.